This patent is directed to a vibratory apparatus and a method for transporting and assembling a vibratory apparatus, and, in particular, to a vibratory screening apparatus and a method for transporting and assembling the same.
For many years, mining operations have used brute force vibratory screening units to separate the materials generated by upstream crushing and/or grinding operations so that these materials may be further processed downstream to extract metal from ore. A brute force, or direct drive, screening unit is one in which the exciter is secured or bolted to the trough (or driven mass). Such units housed in large processing buildings or plants have been used to process, for example, 1000 tons/hour of rock to separate out the desired amount of metal.
Coincident with the recent introduction and commercialization of large capacity grinding mills, lower quality ore bodies are being processed. This results in considerably more material being processed to obtain the same amount of metal from higher quality ore bodies. As a consequence, these direct drive units have had to handle significantly more material, with processing rates doubling or tripling as a result.
To handle the increased processing demands, the industry has seen a shift to larger and larger units. Where a direct drive unit screening unit with a 2 meter width may have been used in the past, a direct drive unit with a 4 meter width is used now to accommodate the increased loading. Increases in size have associated and related increases in the power requirement for the screening unit.
In the alternative, certain mines have shifted to use of vibratory screening units featuring a two-mass exciter unit. Two-mass exciter units have the advantage of responding positively to loading. That is as loading increases, the screening unit will provide an increase, rather than a reduction, in stroke. As a consequence, such screening units have a lower power requirement than a direct drive unit.
The size of even two-mass vibratory screening units is considerable, however. Further, fabrication of the screening unit on site is not desirable, such that the unit is typically fabricated at one location and transported for use in a second location. The first and second locations typically considerably distant as a matter of geography, with hundreds or thousands of miles separating the fabrication location from the installation location.